On spring training: “[It has been] good. You know, it’s fun seeing these young guys get an opportunity to play and play well. It’s a great feeling around here with the team that the Reds have put together and everyone’s real excited. You can feel it.”

On the talent in the organization: “You see [the talent] not only at the Major League level, but it really filters down throughout the system, especially with the pitching, you really get a sense that the depth here is outstanding. That doesn’t always happen with pitching. A lot of times you’re trying to get enough guys to fill out a staff. In this case we have quality guys that are going to be filling out the staffs throughout the system.”

On the players: ”Guys are getting their work in, they’re playing hard, they’re enthusiastic. This time of year that’s pretty much all you look for. The results can be deceiving at this point in spring training, but a lot of good things are happening. Look at how Soto and Phipps and Didi and Henry Rodriguez are doing—they’re making a great impression and that’s really what you want to do in your first spring training. It’s no surprise the way they go about it is the right way and it’s paying off for them.”

“You look at Phipps and it’s exciting to see if he can continue whatever clicked for him last year about halfway through the season. He just hasn’t let up since and it’s real. It’s something that he’s been able to keep up, and if he does, which we all expect him to, it’s just a matter of time before he’s helping the Reds. Wherever he starts, it doesn’t matter—the exciting part is to see if he can continue what he did last year.”

“Soto is working hard, continuing to improve defensively which is big for him because he’s finally settled in to one position at first base. I know he’s impressed everyone with the way he swings the bat. After the year he had last year, too, I know he can’t wait for the season to start—it can’t start soon enough for him.”

On Phipps turnaround last year: “I can’t take the credit. I think the organization deserves a lot of credit because they were patient in the way you’re supposed to be. You see a guy like this who’s got a lot of talent and it’s not easy all the time to have patience and they did. What clicked for him? I think he finally got to a point where he became very aggressive and kind of forgot about the results and just continued to work. I really can say I think it just clicked for him—that’s the only way to really explain it. It’s continued—he looks like the same guy this spring as he did when he left Carolina before he joined the Bats last year.”

“Hopefully [Soto] can provide some comfort level [for] what you have behind this quality major league team…. There’s a lot of talent, position players that can step in right away and are solid players and can step in at any role and be able to help them. We already talked about the pitching and the depth there is probably the most important thing.”

“I’m ready [to get to Louisville]. This is the time of spring training that, you know, you can’t wait for the season to start. We haven’t even started the minor league games yet—we start those in a couple days. We’ll have a couple weeks and we’ll all be ready to go.”